April 2011 Archives

Apr

[In Response To Your Concerns] Google Voice + Sprint Integration Questions and Answers

Posted by Brad Ganley in Applications, Editorials, Sprint, Tips

Last Updated: May 13th, 2011

A few days ago I posted about my experience with the Google Voice integration with Sprint and outlined exactly how I did it. In the comments section, you guys responded with a lot of good thoughts and, in some cases, some serious bugs and questions. I have done a little bit of research, some testing, and some drinking (just kidding. Kind of), and I have some answers and responses for you upstanding, early-adopting citizens.

The Questions

1.How will this affect my MMS?

This was actually the main reason I chose to integrate my Sprint and Google Voice accounts. The short ...

Apr

Guerrilla Bob Comes To The Tegra Zone, Now You Can Blow Stuff Up In HD

Posted by Cameron Summerson in Games, News

More and more game developers are taking advantage of the raw power of the Tegra 2 processor, and today, Angry Mob Games brings Guerrilla Bob to those ranks. The graphics have been completely revamped to provide a more aesthetically pleasing experience, adding things like post-processing effects like bloom and glow, real-time lighting, and higher resolution textures.

As far as gameplay is concerned, you can expect the same in-your-face killing field that has always been Guerrilla Bob, only prettier. With a full on assault of weapons - like Machine Guns, Molotov Cocktails, Double Uzis, and Rocket Launchers, just to ...

Apr

[Carrier Crackdown] Tethering Apps Are Being Blocked In The Android Market [Updated]

Posted by Cameron Summerson in Carriers, Mods

Last Updated: October 28th, 2011

It's a sad, sad day when we can't use the data that we pay for in a manner that we choose - but that day has arrived. It seems that somebody (perhaps carriers?) is blocking the ability to install Wireless Tether in the Android Market. This is what you get if you try to install it:

You can see that while it's still in the Market, it's not available for installation on any carrier-connected device. Most of the well known tethering apps have made the carrier blacklist, such as Wireless Tether and PDAnet, but there are some lesser known ones ...

Apr

We Knew It Was Coming: Google Is Being Sued Over Location Tracking in Android

Posted by Cameron Summerson in News

I would like to say that this comes as a surprise... but I would be lying. Two Michigan women have filed a class-action lawsuit against Google for location tracking features used in Android's GPS, stating that it puts "users at serious risk of privacy invasions, including stalking." Their request? That Google stops selling phones that can track users location. Puh-lease.

This $50 million class action lawsuit comes after Google acknowledged that Android phones temporarily store some location based data directly on the phone after using GPS. Google stands firm that this information is not traceable back to the originating device, ...

Apr

Google I/O 2011 Schedule For 20+ Android Sessions Now Available

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in Dev, News

Google I/O 2011 is almost here - can you feel it in the air? Personally, I'm counting down days to May 10th when I'll be waking up extra early to gallop over to the Moscone Center in San Francisco and try to attend at least some of the 22 planned Android sessions, including fireside chats and office hours with the Android team.

The [almost - there's 1 TBA] final schedule for these sessions is now up at the I/O site, so if you're one of the lucky attendees, have a look below or hop on over to this document...

Apr

[Hands-On Video] DROID Charge: First Impressions

Posted by David Ruddock in 4G, Droid Charge / i510, News, Samsung, Verizon Wireless, Videos

While Verizon has temporarily pushed back the release date of the DROID Charge after a 24-hour 4G LTE network outage yesterday, I did manage to get my hands on a review unit this afternoon.

The first thing I noticed was how sleek and futuristic this phone looks - it is just plain cool, in a way that no HTC or Motorola device even comes close to. The boot animation is probably the best on any DROID to date. It's shaped like it was designed to thwart radar detection - and it's pretty light to boot, a perception that is reinforced ...

Apr

Adobe Releases Major Update To Flash 10.2, Including Enhancements For Honeycomb

Posted by Jaroslav Stekl in Acer, Applications, ASUS, Eee Pad Transformer, Honeycomb 3.0/3.1/3.2, Iconia Tab A500, LG, Motorola, News, Optimus Pad / G-Slate, XOOM

The latest update to Flash 10.2 for Android (version number 10.2.157.51) hit the Market earlier today and introduced several enhancements, most notably hardware acceleration for 720p videos (mentioned here earlier), albeit only on Honeycomb tablets.

Browser integration in Honeycomb has also been improved, and "important bug fixes and security enhancements," including a fix to the "critical" vulnerability discovered a few weeks ago, have been made across the board - not just in Honeycomb.

The only problem - both of the Honeycomb enhancements above require a yet-to-be-released system update, which could potentially bear version number 3.1, at least according to the ...

Apr

Compared: HTC Droid Incredible 2 vs The Original Droid Incredible [Specs]

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in Droid Incredible, Editorials, HTC, Incredible 2 (Vivow)

It's April 28th, the official release date for the 2nd generation Droid Incredible from HTC, and if you haven't studied this phone in detail yet, you're probably wondering just what exactly has changed since the original "Dinc" entered the market last April. Let's have a look, shall we?

Key Differences

Network

First and foremost, just like the Droid 2 Global Edition, the new Incredible 2 is a world phone with both CDMA and GSM frequencies. Verizon Wireless provides the following interesting numbers:

voice service in over 220 countries
data in over 200 countries
3G speeds in more than 125

Quite ...

Apr

[Like A Boss] Acer Iconia Tab A500 Rooted, Process Is Stupid Easy

Posted by Brad Ganley in Acer, Applications, Iconia Tab A500, Mods, News

Good news, everyone! The Acer Iconia has been rooted and the process is so ridiculously simple that it's almost offensive. Seriously. Here is the entire step-by-step process to gaining full root on the Acer Iconia:

The link in that post goes to the XDA thread for a modified GingerBreak, an application for rooting devices in one click; no computer necessary. You simply download the modified APK, install it on your Iconia, run it, and become rooted.

I must say, I'm impressed at how simple and fast that was for a device that just came out, let alone ...

Apr

HTC ThunderBolt vs. Samsung DROID Charge: Battle Of The Specs

Posted by Jaroslav Stekl in Droid Charge / i510, HTC, News, Samsung, Thunderbolt (Mecha)

Verizon's pair of LTE handsets are sure to confuse some shoppers - though one is from Samsung (the DROID Charge) and the other from HTC (the ThunderBolt), the two sport relatively similar feature sets and designs that somewhat resemble one another. So what's the difference? Well, aside from the Charge being $50 more expensive than the already-pricy ThunderBolt, there really aren't many differentiators - let's take a side-by-side look at their spec sheets: